NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Tuesday, July 24, 2018

Tulaa, a platform for smallholder farmers to access inputs, credit and markets in Kenya, announced today a seed round of investment of $627,000 led by AHL Venture Partners. The round, which was oversubscribed, also includes investment by Global Partnerships/Eleos Social Venture Fund, Beyond Capital and Rafiki Ventures. The financing will be used to fund Tulaa’s continued expansion in Kenya and for further development of Tulaa’s technology platform.

“Tulaa’s end-to-end platform will improve crop yields while driving improved sales for smallholder farmers and delivering impressive returns to investors,” said Ben Peterson, Senior Partner at AHL. “We believe Tulaa has the team and the product to achieve great results.”

Four out of five African families depend on agriculture for their livelihoods, but lack of access to quality inputs, affordable finance and reliable markets keep many of them trapped in a cycle of poverty. To solve these problems, Tulaa leverages mobile technology and artificial intelligence to enable farmers to purchase inputs on credit and to market their crops efficiently at harvest time. By layering its technology onto last mile networks of retailers and traders, Tulaa makes input and output markets work better for farmers.

“We are thrilled to have this group of investors on board,” said Hillary Miller-Wise, Founder and CEO of Tulaa. “The consortium brings not only capital, but also a terrific mix of experience and knowledge globally as well as in the Kenyan market. Combined with the team of committed and passionate people who we have been fortunate to attract, the added experience of the investors positions us extremely well for growth.”

Photo courtesy of Bioversity International.